Thomas G. Corcoran

Thomas G. Corcoran, in full Thomas Gardiner Corcoran, byname Tommy the Cork, (born December 29, 1900, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States—died December 6, 1981, Washington, D.C.), American lawyer and government official who was instrumental in shepherding much of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation through Congress. He also helped to write the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Corcoran attended Brown University and graduated at the head of his class at Harvard University Law School (1926). After practicing law for five years, he was appointed (1932) by President Herbert Hoover as counsel to the newly formed Reconstruction Finance Corporation in Washington. After Hoover’s defeat by Roosevelt, Corcoran strengthened his roles in the government and the White House and was made assistant to the secretary of the Treasury. Corcoran was also a key figure in Roosevelt’s failed attempt to add six more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and to defeat certain members of Congress in the 1938 election. Corcoran’s power-broker tactics eventually earned him the enmity of Congress, however, which thwarted his appointment to the position of solicitor general in 1941. Frustrated in his efforts to advance, Corcoran reentered private practice in 1941 and successfully represented major businesses and defense contractors.